Quote:
Originally Posted by Johannes Felscher
Hi everybody,
there are some things regarding string length I was recently wondering about, and I just wanted to ask for everyone's opinion and / or experience:
There are many basses out there with a reduced scale length, achieved either by moving up the bridge by 0.5-1" or by using a fake nut (or both). I have never had such a conversion done to any of my basses so I was wondering, what your experiences are in terms of how the response / tone of the instrument changes - if at all. I know this is a very general question and each bass is different after all, but maybe there's some sort of bottom line here.
I personally have relatively big hands and feel comfortable playing basses with 42-43" string length, so instead of shortening I was actually wondering sometimes, if the response of an instrument could improve (especially on the E string) by re-converting it.
Any input is welcome, just though I throw it out there.
Best,
Johannes
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How is your intonation on a 43" string length?
I have made some false Nuts and moved a few bridges up myself. I have also had a few basses shortened with a Block Cut and deeper neck set or neck graft. Some of the basses were not playable before so I don't know the change.
Those that I never played before sounded fantastic afterwards but they were also fully restored as well in the process. These were also high end older basses.
On the ones with the false Nuts I made, I heard a slight improvement on the focus of the sound but a huge improvement on the playability for hand stretch. The notes were also moved up the neck in the process. This is not always good but in the case of an Eb neck, doing this got it to a D which was an improvement.
On moving the bridge, one has to make sure of the post position, bass bar shape and bridge feet width as it's relative to the F-hole eyes width/spacing. A bridge too wide for itself can help the top sink at the f-hole areas. I have seen that on at least 2 basses that I can recall right now.
41.5" is the norm, +/- 1/2". Stay within that and you will be fine.